The Scandic Hotel lobby is crammed with visitors, old and
young. Half a dozen Minis, painted black and white and emblazoned with 'No Logo
Norway Chess 2014', are lined up outside the hotel.

A makeshift studio for the web broadcast of newspaper VG has
been erected in the middle of the lobby where pundits chat and move pieces
around on a giant (horizontal) demonstration board for six hours, continuing
long after the final game had concluded.

Journalists with microphones are constantly making live
crosses back to the TV2 studios in Bergen, the television station which won the
bidding war to cover Norway Chess 2014.
The playing hall has 100 of the 150 seats filled, mostly
with adults who have paid $40 for a day pass to watch one of the strongest
tournaments of 2014.

Outside the hall, dozens of children, as young as six or
seven, prefer to gather in the hotel lobby and compete against each other on
the many chess sets provided. Their time will come - as soon as the games
finish a pack of pre-teen locusts gather around the players, pressing for
autographs.

After escaping the children, the players are led from
interview to interview; first the informed but generally sympathetic
questioning of commentary hosts Nigel Short and Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam followed
by some tough and well researched questions,from the mainstream Norwegian
media.

GM Caruana interviewed, Photo Cathy Rogers

"I can't explain my blunder," said Caruana after losing a
drawn rook endgame to Kramnik. "Why can't you explain it?" shot back the reply.
Kramnik, who might have been expecting congratulations on
his win was questioned
hard on why he would not be shaking hands with Topalov at the start of the
following day's game. We learned that since Topalov had never apologized for
his cheating allegations during the Toiletgate World Championship match of
2006, Kramnik would not be shaking Topalov's hand and that this was a firm
'principle'. By the end of the series of direct questions by the TV2
interviewer, Kramnik was probably wondering, even to himself, whether his
behavior was principled or childish.

GM Kramnik interviewed, Photo Cathy Rogers

Even commentator Short was ambushed
by a VG interviewer wanting to know why he had written an obituary about
fellow English GM Tony Miles which included mention of sleeping with Miles' girlfriend
as revenge for Miles taking board one at the 1986 Dubai Olympiad.
Rather than adopt the "I was young and stupid back then"
defense, Short doubled down and explained that this anecdote was necessary in
the obituary to provide a "balanced" picture of Miles. The interview was no
doubt embarrassing for Short but great television for Norwegian chess fans.

Photo Cathy Rogers

For US chess fans who can remember the Fischer boom circa
1972, such scenes might bring back memories - though Shelby Lyman was
commentating in a more innocent era, when two flies in a chair was a big story
and Fischer's moves were revered, rather than constantly overruled by the
ever-present Houdini.

However just as with the Fischer boom, Norwegian chess fever
is down to just one man, Magnus Carlsen; though it might be more correct to say
that everything started with Carlsen winning the World Championship last
November.

The first
Norway Chess tournament in May 2013 was a brilliant tournament -
technically almost perfect - but even on weekends the number of spectators was
relatively modest.

12 months later a huge admission fee (even by Norwegian
standards) has not kept the crowds away and the domestic media presence has
multiplied threefold. (Fortunately for organiser Kjell Madland, the upsurge in
interest in chess has enabled him to multiply the budget by a similar amount.
What other tournament can afford 13 Mini Coopers to ferry the players and
accompanying people around? Or, more importantly, to provide a lavish banquet
of tropical fruit and gourmet wraps for the press?)

The one missing ingredient - until Sunday - was success by
the local hero.

Carlsen drew his first four games, narrowly escaping against
Fabiano Caruana in round three and suffered the ignominy of finding himself
tied with his former coach, Simen Agdestein.

Agdestein, 47, who qualified for the match by beating young
star and Carlsen second Jon-Ludwig Hammer in a match, was expected to be too
old and too weak to survive in a field which included seven of the top nine in
the world. (Anand and Nakamura were the missing links - the latter busy beating
David Navara in a match in
Prague.)

However Agdestein has more than held his own, drawing his
first five rounds and missing serious winning chances against the Russian pair
Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk.

After drawing with Agdestein in the fourth round, Kramnik
explained, "Before the tournament I thought it would be difficult for Simen to
compete on equal terms against the best players in the world. Of course he used
to be a very strong player [Agdestein peaked at world number 16. IR] but then
he didn't play for a bit and he is the oldest player. But by today I already realised
that it would not be so easy - you don't lose class. [On the positive side] he
has given me hope that I can play longer than I expected!"

GM Magnus Carlsen faces GM Lev Aronian, Photo Cathy Rogers

In round 5 Carlsen looked to be in trouble against world
number two Levon Aronian until the Armenian lost his way...

Stavanger Round 5

White:
M.CarlsenBlack:
L.Aronian

Position
after Black's 31st move
Aronian's last move, 31...c6! created a huge threat of
32...Bb5 and Carlsen must take desperate measures to stop it. ("At the start of
the tournament I felt that I was playing well, but now... I was just outplayed
today," said Carlsen.)
At this stage Carlsen, through his body language, was showing
exactly how bad he believed his position to be, constantly stretching and- the
giveaway - sitting side-on in his chair.

32.Ra5

Aronian was more worried about 32.Qa5
h5 33.Rcc2 but then 33...Qd3! keeps Black on top.32...Qb3?

Suddenly Carlsen sat bolt upright and began to calculate
intently. After 32...h5, keeping the White knight corralled, he would probably
have remained half-asleep - literally, since it turned out that Carlsen had
been unable to sleep the previous night, catching 40 winks only at 10am until
shortly before the game.

33.Qa1! Qd1+?

Sheer panic. Had Carlsen not suddenly adopted the pose of a
winner, Aronian might have found 3...Bb5!, with the point that after
34.Rxa7 Black can afford 34...Bxe2 because
after 35.Ra8+ Kc7! 36.Qa5+ Kd7 the Black king escapes.

The final move of the time control turns out to be fatal.
40...Rxb7 would offer saving chances.
41.R1a7+ Kb6 42.Re7! Rbf2 43.Rb8+ Ka6 44.Ng3 Bg6 45.Rxf8
Rxf8 46.Re6

and Carlsen won a pawn and the game 47 moves later.

1-0

Carlsen thereby moved to within half a point of the lead
while Aronian dropped back below 50%.

Carlsen might have been expecting to be trailing Caruana,
who had won his first two games and had chances to win the following two as
well, but the Italian was taken down by Vladimir Kramnik, following some
Carlsen-like psychology by Kramnik in a drawn endgame.

Stavanger
Round 5

White:
V.KramnikBlack:
F.Caruana

Position
after Black's 44th move.

Kramnik had been unable to do
anything with his extra pawn for many moves - "I was expecting to be able to
invade on the h file but it never happened," said Kramnik - so he makes a final
throw of the dice.

"I had seen 50...Kf8! when analysing
45...Bxb3," said Caruana, "and I cannot explain why I didn't play it." Without
an invasion square on g7 White can make no progress, e.g. 51.Ke6 Rb6+ 52.Kd7
Rb3 53.e5 Rd3+ 54.Kc6 and now 54...Ke8 is safe enough but even 54...a2!?
55.Rxa2 Ke7 draws comfortably.

51.Kf6! Rb6+ 52.Kg7 1-0

Kramnik was somewhat surprised by
the early resignation but White has a
choice of winning methods, the simplest being 52.Kg7 Rb3 53.Kxg6 Rf3 54.e5 Re3
55.Kf5 Rf3+ 56.Ke4 Rg3 57.Kf4 Rb3 and now the White pawns are ready to march to
victory via 58.g6 with 59.e6 to follow.

So just after the halfway point in
Norway Chess, Kramnik, despite suffering from a cold, has taken the lead with
3.5/5, with Carlsen and Caruana half a point further back. Any one of half a
dozen players could yet win, but few would be willing to bet against Carlsen
adding another title to his collection. "If I was forced to put my money on a
winner, I would still put it on Magnus," said Kramnik the day before Carlsen
won his first game!

**
The Norway Chess tournament continues until Friday, with
games starting at 9.30am AEST (Round 9 at 8.30am AEST).

**
For those wondering why Norway Chess is called No Logo
Norway Chess, this is not, sad to say, a tribute to the Canadian author
Naomi Klein's influential book No
Logo but because the tournament sponsor, Unibet, is a betting company and
therefore cannot be promoted in Norway.